At 20:11 17/07/07 +0100, Daniel Davies wrote:
>I will certainly stand up and be counted as someone who is very definitely
>considering departing this mailing list for this reason. This isn't a
>threat or anything; just a recognition of the fact that I am interested in
>statistics, but not interested in racial biology or in decades-old arguments
>about black people, so it makes little sense in my remaining subscribed to a
>list where 75% of the traffic is about the latter rather than the former.
Exactly. I feel sure you're far from being alone, and that is the tragedy
of all this. It appears that common sense appears to be lacking, and has
been replaced with a fear of appearing 'non-PC'.
In my opinion, the right to 'Freedom of speech' can nearly always be upheld
without interpreting it as a right of any individual to subject any
audience, at any time and for any duration to material of any type. Except
in extreme situations, exercising one's right to freedom of speech does not
cause one to have to forget about 'common courtesy'. Whatever JISCmail
may, or may not, think and assume about its lists, most people (including
the academics) who join them do not want to be faced with, and have 'to
deal with', the sort of situations we are discussing.
Perhaps the silliest thing about all this is that I feel sure that most
list members know exactly what 'the majority' of list members would like to
be done about the situation, yet 'PC considerations', or whatever you want
to call it, mean that most of them do not even dare to speak their mind.
Kind Regards,
John
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